Manhattan Bridge to the Southern Tip Out and Back

Following a successful run at the opposite end of Long Island I returned to face the western tip today with a bit of the southern tip of Manhattan thrown in.

Total distance (gmap-pedometer, as my footpod was inactive for some reason this run): 9.7 miles

Total time (including waiting for lights, e.g. wind breaks!): 1:14 flat

Route:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2457243

Manhattan Bridge out and back across to West Broadway, down to the southern tip, around and back via Manhattan Bridge. I typically don't run back across the Manhattan but the weather was great so I figured everyone (and their dogs) would be on the Brooklyn Bridge so I steered clear.

Details:

Heart Rate – was very low for me, especially at this speed (7:40 or so) – around 165 bpm average

Thoughts – felt great, but then again running in a long sleeve with tights (no hat, no gloves, no jacket) will do that to you. Missed my new, on order, clear glasses for training – too dark for shades and too windy not to have something. I refuse to run in my regular glasses, but need some eye protection.

China town looks great this time of year, go check it out if you haven't!

Niggly report – all well on that front. Believe that my new insoles are the culprit, and will replace them and test those old shoes...the left arch feels great and the quad is better too. Small blister, but it was a long run.

Boxing Day - Sag Harbor Run with Diane

Traveling and running are always simultaneously challenging and incredibly rewarding. This staycation we went to Sag Harbor to visit Steph's sister, and fellow NYRR runner, Diane. Today Diane and I went out (and back) for a 7.84 miler. Pedometer link can be found here -

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=245435

Showing that I am, in general, willing to run anywhere – here we're on the exact opposite tip of Long Island from our house. Special thanks to Steph (and Dylan) for staying home and keeping the home fire burning, literally!, while we ran.

Details:

Pace – “Recovery” – averaged 8:41 min per mile

Heart Rate – 155 average (much, much slower than race pace, which is good)

General overall – felt strong, could most certainly have gotten up into double digits at that pace without trouble

Niggly injury update – the outside of my left arch has been bugging me, especially on longer runs, but it didn't bother me at all. I also have a very slight strain on my right quad, which again didn't bother me during this run – save the end when it reappeared in a much less naggy way – will stretch and hope for the best here

The Battle Begins

I see two major battle fronts for the next year.

The first is getting out and logging mileage on my weary legs. It's hard to find time when I'm on the road and it's easy to just sit and hang with the family after a long day rather than head out for a run in the evening. I'm not a morning person so getting up early for a run before the day starts is also very hard.

The second battle is the food consumption. I'm living on the road a lot lately so I'm constantly eating in restaurants and it's hard to resist the temptation for good food that is rich and not particularly healthy. I'm planning to return to my previous vegetarian ways to reduce my consumption fatty meats. I'm also going to try and blog my food consumption - thereby embarrassing myself if I continue to overeat.

Last night I made it to the gym. Ran for 5 miles and did a little bit of weights after. Won't make it there today as I have to do some shopping then Susan and her sister are leaving me with the kids while they go to a show - tomorrow the gym is closed but I will try to make it outside for a run in the cold!

Ted Corbitt Frozen 15k

As with many races today was something of a major success and, at the same time, a little bit of failure. When I got to the race this morning, I found that the race was no longer and instead it would be a fun run. Thus no link to my official results...undaunted I still ran the 'fun run' and did pretty well given the conditions – Officially from the national weather service the temperature was 23 degrees with 7-10 MPH winds.

NYRR Ted Corbitt 15K

The NYRR Ted Corbitt 15K took place on Saturday, December 20, as an unscored fun run in Central Park, due to icy road conditions. (from the NY Road Runner's Web page).

For pictures of the race – click here

For pictures of me running the race - click here

Regarding my run – as per usual I went out too fast, that said it felt GREAT. And when I say great I mean I was running great splits (for me) all the way into the 8^th mile – as you can see here:

Mile	Time
1	08:13
2	07:22
3	07:25
4	08:13
5	07:41
6	08:05
7	07:51
8	08:24
9	08:12
0.3	02:48

Total time by the watch – 1:14:18 (could have been slightly less given the gloves factor) but it was a fun run so nobody cares, right?

Comments are that mile 1 was crowded and hilly. Miles 2 and 3 felt great. Mile 4 was hilly. Mile 5 through 7 were around the turn coming for home (but the bottom of the loop). Mile 8 – now that's the problem, but I think the wheels feel off a little bit there. Nice to see that I pulled some time back on the 9^th mile though, shaving 12 seconds off the previous mile. The finish was a bit slick and thus the 8:30 time on the last 0.3 mile.

One interesting tid bit, perhaps very interesting (please comment) for the more experienced runners; I had two gels with me, one which I ate before the start. And the second that I wanted to eat at 45 minutes. But I was so far ahead of my planned pace that I didn't eat it on the straight away (it was only 35 mins in) and instead thought about it at 45 mins (which was on a huge hill - so I didn't do it) and instead finished the race without. Saturday afternoon quarterback I think that I might not have struggled so badly on mile 8 and 9 if I'd taken the gel. Food for thought - pun intended...!

For more information on the course:

http://www.nyrr.org/races/2008/pdf/map_corbitt_08.pdf

Most importantly I stayed warm and finished the race – even though I'd hoped (especially during the 47 minute completion of the 6^th mile) to beat my personal best time of:

Distance (miles) Net Time Pace/Mile Overall Place Gender Place Age Place Age-Graded %

Colon Cancer Challenge 15K
March 9, 2008 Parks, Joshua M35 Brooklyn, 9.3 1:13:53 7:56 894 716 281 56.4 %

A final thought – I managed to accomplish a huge goal – always a goal really, but important when the miles get high of running faster than 8 minutes a mile on average. The Central Park course is particularly hilly, yada, yada, but it's always important to run faster than my goal (at this point) time for the NY Martahon in the Fall. Let's see how training goes, it's a long, long time away, (perhaps those 7:30 miles will start adding up?) but it's nice to see that I can sustain the goal pace and manage to finish the race with something left.

All in I'm proud of myself for making the effort. Seemed like many others just stayed in bed, and I certainly wanted to do so too!

First workout for the blog

Motivated by the blog and just wanting to be healthier - I got up at 5:10 and was on the road by 5:32 (I must improve my efficiency in the morning!).

Ran my usual training run - at just slightly slower than I hope to run this weekend for the 15k...

a map of my run can be found here - it's my typical - out on the Manhattan and back on the Brooklyn.

Best detail - no one, running, biking, or standing was on the bridge while I was there. Certainly a memory...

Started to rain on the run - but that didn't stop me.

My pedometer (which I believe much more than the gmap) reported just over 5.5 miles in 44:16. Finished with a nice kick - something that has been challenging me lately.

Damn you Brian!

My first thought upon finishing my volunteering - or maybe it was BEFORE finishing the vol work was, 'Brian, now we've got to train for and run this darn marathon'. As someone who's actually completed a 15k and run the 12 mile and 13.2 mile training 'long' runs, I can honestly say that I'm not sure I even WANT to run 26+ miles - after all that's a long way.

Well at the beginning of the last challenge I was 188 and this time I'm starting at 185. The disadvantage at this point is that I have a lovely and very active daughter to keep up with when I'm not training. (My wife is still there, but luckily for me she's a relative known and a great constant).

So it's on. My goals - stated and for the record:

• Lose weight
• Get back in peak shape - this is defined as completing a 4 miler in just over 28 minutes (fastest time - May 11, 2008 - 28:17)
  
• Return to running the half at around 7:45/mile pace (as I did just before Dylan was born in training - doesn't count!)
  
• Get quicker
• Run every race that I ran in 2008
• Run the mile much faster than I did this year (this is a 'gimme' since I didn't train at ALL for this race following Dylan's birth)

So things have got to change around here...I'm starting with the beer in take - must reduce to one per day! Also the training schedule, must increase to more than 1 per week.

I'm running the Corbitt 15k this weekend - let's see if I can manage to run this one faster than my last - a personal best always feels pretty good. Speaking of which, I'm starting on a much better base than we did last time; for example my last 10k was a PR (believe it or not) largely due to the corrals at the beginning, but I'll take it.

We'll let's see how this one goes - I'll keep updating as to how many miles per week and how the training goes.

I'm really looking forward to running my first half as I've been stymied twice in 2008 (Brooklyn with a knee injury and the New York with Dylan's birth day). It will feel great to complete that race in particular.

It's official

So we've knocked off 9 races and done our volunteering (in the freezing cold this past Saturday in Central park). Now we just have to train and actually run the damn race. I managed to get out for a run yesterday and realized I have a long way to go. The longest race I ran this year was 10k - only 1/4 of a marathon. I've also committed myself to doing the NYC Triathlon in 2010 if I finish the marathon in Nov.

It's going to be a long year of training but I think it's a good goal to have.